Omni-channel retailing

: is it “Order online pick-up in store” service viable in the Portuguese grocery industry?

Abstract

It is impossible to continue to ignore the online grocery retailing’s statistics. The services available are not capturing enough consumers turning the online channel more in a customer service strategy than in a business capable of bringing economic value to the companies that are investing on it. The “Order online pick-up in store” service addresses two important issues: convenience and time saver. Such an innovative service acts as a competitive differentiator capable of improving the all customer’s shopping experience which will be reflected on the company’s sales volume. A key point of this dissertation is approaching the launching of this new service more as a complement than as a competitor of the existing independent online channel. This dissertation aims to understand first – in the perspective of the perceived risk theory – which have been the barriers for customers not buying groceries over the internet. Then, it will be analyzed - using the results of a questionnaire - if the introduction of the “Order online pick-up in store” service is viable in the Portuguese grocery industry. The questionnaire’s results show that a large group of people would be interested in using this service – benefiting from the absence of a service fee, saving time and a better products’ quality control. The number of participants willing to change occasionally the store where they normally buy their grocery products in order to use this service suggests that managing a cross-channel strategy is of utmost importance for the players present in the competitive Portuguese grocery market.

Date of Award	2012
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Pedro Celeste (Supervisor)